What is egg white powder and how to use it for cooking and baking?

Egg white powder is made by dehydrating fresh egg whites until all moisture evaporates, leaving behind a dried powder. This versatile ingredient has many benefits over fresh eggs. As there is no water content, egg white powder has a much longer shelf life without requiring refrigeration. It also eliminates the messy step of separating eggs to use just the whites, allowing you to skip discarding unused egg yolks. Most importantly, egg white powder can replace fresh egg whites in recipes with more consistent and reliable results, in terms of stability, volume, and texture. 

Using egg white powder in cooking

Egg white powder can be used as an ingredient or leavening agent across a variety of dishes for savory cooking.

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Whipping egg white powder for meringue frostings

Egg white powder comes in handy when preparing recipes centered around egg whites or that use them as a binder or foaming agent. For example, egg white powder can be whipped into glossy, stiff peaks with sugar and cream of tartar, to create stable italian meringue or swiss meringue buttercream frostings. It can also be whipped into royal icing to decorate cookies that will hold their decorative piped shapes without melting or running. Using egg white powder eliminates concerns of salmonella contamination from raw egg whites in frostings.

Binding in quiches and baked egg dishes

In quiches, frittatas, stratas and other baked egg dishes, egg white powder binds together the custard made from eggs, milk or cream, along with the other mix-in ingredients like vegetables, cheese or meat. This prevents watering down the texture of the custard which would make the final bake soggy. The powder helps the custard set perfectly without thinning it out.

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Making classic french sauces

You can also prepare classic french sauces like hollandaise, béarnaise and avgolemono using egg white powder. Whisking the reconstituted powder with melted butter or oil forms a smooth, thick emulsion for rich and creamy sauces to top dishes like eggs benedict, steak, fish and vegetables. The egg white powder enables the emulsion to hold longer without separating.

Using egg white powder in baking

In baking, many techniques can lay on the qualities of the egg white powder.

Enhancing yeast-raised breads and rolls

When added to doughs and batters, egg white powder incorporates air to make baked goods rise higher with a lighter, softer and more even crumb. It also lends structure and moisture for better texture.

For yeast-raised breads and rolls like brioche, enriched sandwich bread, dinner rolls or sweet buns, mixing egg white powder into the dough provides protein and moisture for the yeast to feed on. This additional nutrition cuts down proofing time, while enabling faster fermentation and increased rise, compared to doughs without egg whites. The final baked bread will be fluffier and airier with more lift.

Fluffy pancakes, waffles, and more

Beating reconstituted egg white powder into pancake, waffle, crepe, cake and muffin batters makes them bake up taller and fluffier while retaining more moisture. This is because the whipped powder increases the batter's volume and lightens its texture so it can rise higher before the structure sets in the oven. Using egg white powder is an easy way to create fluffy baked goods without extra leavening agents.

Perfecting mousses and meringue-topped desserts

Egg white powder is ideal for making airy, light mousses without the hassle of whipping and folding in fresh egg whites. Simply blend rehydrated powder with cream and flavorings like chocolate, caramel or fruit purees. It gives the same smooth, meltingly light texture but with longer stability in the fridge. You can also beat powder with sugar when making lemon meringue pie, angel food cake or any other meringue-topped desserts. It whips up into lofty, billowy topping for a beautiful contrast against the dense filling or cake layers.

As we’ve explored, the uses for egg white powder truly run the gamut from breakfast bakes to decorative desserts, and everything in between.